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First off, I pass this vehicle on St John’s Hill in Ipswich. How can this possibly be not classed as obstruction? It is happens regularly here, and I have reported it to the police , but it still continues.

A mins further on and I spot this van, car and wheelie bin making life for pedestrians very difficult on St Helen’s Street outside H & F Autos.

Then onto Grimwade Street and the pavement next to a bus stop is completely blocked by this scaffolding lorry for the third day running. For sure, these guys need to unload safely and get a complex load of scaffolding installed, but do they need to bock the pavement like this? Are they allowed to? If so then should they have applied for permission? And have they done it safely and properly? In reality pedestrians walk past the sign rather than risking their lives crossing a busy fast one-way street at the suggested location.

I spoke to the company and the MD told me that he believes that no permission is needed to do this.

Checking some legislation, the ‘New Roads and Street Works Act 1991’ may be applicable. However, it says that one should not “create an obstruction in a street to a greater extent or for a longer period than is reasonably necessary, the street authority may by notice require him to take such reasonable steps as are specified in the notice to mitigate or discontinue the obstruction“. (section 66) which implies that they should have asked to permission. I will do some more digging.

Pop round the corner onto Fore Street, opposite the university, and we find UPS well up on the pavement. Notice the ‘no waiting’ ticks on the pavement.

Update (Friday 6 Jan 2017)

I was pleased to see that today the scaffolders have replaced the ‘pedestrians cross the road’ sign with a ‘warning men working overhead’ which is much more appropriate.

The government has just introduced £100 fines for people who “needlessly hog the middle or outside lane” of a motorway or dual-carriageway.

I find this curious, because the rule 264 of the Highway code reads: “You should always drive in the left-hand lane when the road ahead is clear. If you are overtaking a number of slower-moving vehicles, you should return to the left-hand lane as soon as you are safely past. Slow-moving or speed-restricted vehicles should always remain in the left-hand lane of the carriageway unless overtaking. You MUST NOT drive on the hard shoulder except in an emergency or if directed to do so by the police, HA traffic officers in uniform or by signs.”

The word ‘should‘ in the Highway Code is code for ‘this is antisocial but not illegal’. ‘MUST NOT‘ means that it is illegal. Conclusion — lane hogging is not illegal, but is antisocial.

Curiously Rule 244 of the highway code says: “You MUST NOT park partially or wholly on the pavement in London, and should not do so elsewhere unless signs permit it. Parking on the pavement can obstruct and seriously inconvenience pedestrians, people in wheelchairs or with visual impairments and people with prams or pushchairs.” Forget London (unless you live there). For most of the rest of use this would read: “You should not park partially or wholly on the pavement unless signs permit it.” Conclusion — pavement parking parking is antisocial, but not illegal (unless you live in London).

However, in addition Rule 145 of the Highway Code says “You MUST NOT drive on or over a pavement, footpath or bridleway except to gain lawful access to property, or in the case of an emergency.” Conclusion —- in order to park on a pavement a driver has to break this law twice, once to drives onto the pavement, and again to get off.

In summary:

Pavement hogging involving breaking the law at least twice (but is largely ignored by the police and politicians).

Lane hogging appear not to be illegal, but the politicians have determined that the police should fine people £100 for doing so.

So.. the big question is what are we going to have to do to get the politicians to wake up to this issue.

The problem is that every year there are more cars, every year more people discover that they can park on pavement without getting into trouble, and park more audaciously. Every year more people get more confident of their ‘right’ to park on pavements. Every year it gets tougher for pedestrians.

To illustrate the point, here are a few incidents I have noticed locally over the past few weeks. Driver appear to be totally confident that the police won’t do anything even if they block the entire pavement.

The good news is that the politicians have demonstrated that they can act even if they want to. Now we just have to make them want to!

Update

Carlton Reid has just commented that the paving outside the shop in the first two photos is very cracked. He also noted that pedestrians do not crack paving slabs when they walk across them, but that vehicles often do! Here is a photo of the same area taken when it was free of cars. Needless to say, in this case motorists are breaking loads of additional laws, including parking on the pavement next to a double yellow line, parking in a ‘no loading’ place and parking within 10 meters of a junction. Any more? Anyone care to estimate how much this paving would cost to fix?

Update 2

I have just found another really classy bit of parking outside the side the same shop. Notice all the road-signs and bins on the pavement the other side of the vehicle.

This guy seemed to have gone to considerable lengths to maximise problems for pedestrians on a very wide pavement beside a dropped kerb, thereby become eligible to join our exclusive ‘whole hog club‘, and yes, he had left the door propped open. When I asked him about it he explained that he had been careful to position his vehicle to minimise inconvenience to other road users… to his credit, he did immediately move his vehicle without any quibble or complaint when I pointed out that he appeared to have forgotten about inconvenience to pedestrians. Thank you for that, which is much better than the normal bolshy response I often get. However, it would be even better if his company had previously provided him with some effective pedestrian awareness training!

Most drivers who park up on the pavement do at least leave two wheels on the carriageway leaving a little space for pedestrians. There are however a minority of more ambitious parkers who park with all four wheels up on the pavement and thereby achieve a far higher standard of obstruction. I would like to introduce our new exclusive ‘whole hog club’ for such drivers. To be eligible to become a member a motorist must:

1) park with all four wheels on the pavement
2) Leave less than 800mm of the legal footway available for pedestrians (800mm is evidently the legal minimum internal door width for disability discrimination legislation!).

Here are some examples, the first was one I saw this morning – I challenged the driver in a very careful, non-threatening way and got a load a abuse (as I have learnt to expect from time to time). I do however know that many people do change their behaviour next time after being challenged. The next was taken in Dudley recently by cyclistpaul. The rest are from my collection.

Pedestrians are discriminated against

"In contrast to the changes made to every town and city to ease motor transport, walking has been made ever more unpleasant. Pedestrians have been treated with contempt. In a myriad of ways when we walk we are treated with less respect than when we drive". (quote for a cross-party parliamentary select committee report on walking in towns from 2001).

This blog documents how this discrimination works, what laws underpin it and what people are doing to counter it. Please take action and share your experiences in the comments section, on twitter or join our facebook group. Add photos to the Flickr pool. All photographs cc-by-sa 3.0 unless otherwise stated or obvious from the source.